Clacton's main hotel looks set to be full with asylum seekers for the summer season.

The Royal Hotel has won part of an appeal against plans to take action against it. That means a second planning inquiry may have to be held, and that would delay the final decision over the hotel's future.

Terry McKean, of Clacton and District Hoteliers and Guest Houses Association, said: "At a time when accommodation is more in demand, we have lost that place once again for another season. We are driving our people abroad all the time."

The Royal, in Marine Parade East, has been taking in asylum seekers and homeless people for more than a year. Tendring Council took enforcement action to remove them as it said the Royal was no longer operating as a hotel.

The Royal appealed against that decision and lost at an inquiry. However, it then appealed against the planning inquiry's outcome and has been partially successful, although the inquiry's findings have not been overturned.

Michael Chittenden, managing director of The Estuarys, which operates the Royal, said another inquiry may now have to be held before a final outcome is reached.

There are about 60 asylum seekers currently at the hotel. Mr Chittenden said it could be the end of the summer before a decision from a future inquiry was announced.

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